Mika Thought This Would Help Obama on Rev. Wright Mess

As excuses go, it was right up there with "but oshifer, I was too drunk to see that stop sign." That's the league in which I'd put the defense of Barack Obama over the Rev. Wright mess that Mika Brzezinski offered this morning.Responding to Chris Matthews' question on yesterday's Hardball as to why he never left Rev. Wright's church, Obama claimed "I never heard [Rev. Wright] say those things…

Mika Goes to Bat for Barack on Rev. Wright

On today's Morning Joe, Obama fan Mika Brzezinski did her best to defuse the spot of bother Barack is in over the extremist statements made by his personal spiritual advisor, the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, Jr. Over the course of the three-hour show, Mika variously and repeatedly:mentioned that Obama has already distanced himself from Wright.pointed out that the Clinton campaign has its own race-…

Scarborough Won't Smile at Mika's Michelle Obama Defense

Update | 3:50 PM: Obama Campaign Clarification: As predicted, the Obama campaign has clarified Michelle's remark. See text at foot.I sense there's often more than a bit of theater in the arguments between Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski. Not to say Morning Joe's the WWF of political talk, but a little conflict never hurt the ratings.But there was evidence that this morning's dust-up between…

Mitchell: Maybe Obama Will Push Gun Control After N. Illinois Shooting

Andrea Mitchell stopped just short of donning an impromptu Obama campaign-advisor hat. But the NBC correspondent has left little doubt she personally feels the time is ripe for Barack Obama to promote gun control as a campaign issue.Guest co-anchoring today's Morning Joe, Mitchell was discussing yesterday's shootings at Northern Illinois University with Willie Geist.

Scarborough: Hillary's Wolfson Might Have Feeling 'Running Down His Le

As fellow NewsBuster Brad Wilmouth has documented, last night an inspired Chris Matthews declared that in watching Barack Obama speak, "I felt this thrill going up my leg."Joe Scarborough has offered a graphic variation on the metaphor to depict how the Clinton folks might be feeling this morning. It came at 7:05 AM ET during today's Morning Joe, subsequent to a discussion of Matthews' thrill-up-…

Dem Consultant Shuster to Obama: Get Rougher With Republicans

David Shuster: not just an MSNBC "correspondent" anymore -- now a Dem campaign consultant too! In the opening segment of today's Morning Joe, Shuster offered a kernel of consulting wisdom to the Obama campaign, and the message was clear: Barack needs to get rougher with those mean-spirited Republicans.MIKA BRZEZINSKI: We did get some comments from Barack Obama yesterday about Mitt Romney…

Shuster: Rush and Hannity Don't Matter

With Joe Scarborough away, the mice did play during the opening segment of today's Morning Joe . . . WILLIE GEIST [facetiously]: David, I know how you like to speak for Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and the rest of that group.MIKA BRZEZINSKI: He's going to the [CPAC] convention.GEIST: You're the voice of that community, but can you make sense out of this? Are they willing, the conservatives, the…

Scarborough: MSM 'Blinded By Hatred' of Romney

Joe Scarborough has given away the MSM's dirty big secret: it hates Mitt Romney and is letting that animus distort its coverage of the Republican race. Joe went on an impassioned riff at the opening of today's Morning Joe.JOE SCARBOROUGH: I want the media mavens in Manhattan and Washington, DC to listen what I'm about to tell you, because it goes against your narrative, but it is the truth. Look…

Bring Mika the Head of John Gibson

The woman who got her big break on network TV thanks to the firing of Don Imus now apparently wants another host to lose his job over some tasteless remarks.Morning Joe is the show that took over MSNBC's early-morning time slot after Imus was bounced for his offensive observations about the Rutgers women's basketball team. Mika Brzezinski, a regular member of the Morning Joe crew, has now left…

Hillary: I'm 'Blessed' Bill is 'Passionate

Did Hillary Clinton really claim to be "blessed" and "grateful" to have a "passionate" husband? Yes. Freudian slip or part of a calculated strategy to curry the women's vote by reminding people of the indignities she's suffered at the hands of her wayward spouse? In any case, Hillary deployed the intriguing double-entendre to defend Bill's recent attacks on Barack Obama.View video here.

Geist: 'Never Underestimate the Stupidity of the American Public

Unlike the sensitive folks over at Media Matters, we NewsBusters are a relatively thick-skinned lot. And no one's ever confused me with Gloria Steinem. So we're not going to overreact to Willie Geist's comment this morning and demand a Matthewsesque mea culpa.However . . . Willie did manage to diss the intelligence of his compatriots on today's Morning Joe. A Friday show tradition is for Geist…

Geist: Take Away the Charm and Huckabee's a Crackpot

See update at bottom: Scarborough nails Shuster on Huck/Obama double-standard.If a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down, does Mike Huckabee's sweet way with a word make tolerable views that would be rejected as extreme in the mouths of others less verbally gifted?That's Willie Geist's view of the matter. The genius of the Morning Joe panelist normally resides in his ability to avoid the…

Scarborough: 'Pathetic Lapdog Freddie Boy, Hatchet Man for McCain

See updates for Huckabee, Thompson responses to this story at bottom.Scratch Joe Scarborough from the list of those praising the performance of Fred Thompson at last night's South Carolina debate hosted by Fox News. With panelists Willie Geist and Mika Brzezinski in supporting roles, the Morning Joe host went off on Thompson today with stunning vitriol, deriding him as "Freddie boy" "pathetic,"…

Huck-a-unbeatable? Shuster Says Mike Would Defeat Any Dem

See Update at Foot: Matthews suggests MSM pushing Mike because he's a sure loser.Should we call him Mike "Huck-a-unbeatable"?As noted here, on Monday David Shuster predicted that Mike Huckabee would win the White House if matched up against Hillary Clinton. Appearing on Morning Joe today at 6:05 AM ET, the MSNBC correspondent took his optimism about Huckabee's prospects a quantum leap further,…